Poppy Cake, Poppy Pie, Poppy seeds for You and I

Yeah, I know it’s not grammatical, but it rimes.

Oh, the cautions about poppy seeds.  I’ll cover that in a moment.

Lots of cultures use poppy seeds, but in my Polish background, Eastern Europe seems to be the best place to find the most use.

Memories are often misplaced or details forgotten and the remaining bits mashed into one memory of a thing that never was. Eh, whaddayagonnado? My memories are almost certainly mash-ups, but the emotions and good tidings are real, even if the details are confused.

German sweets are well populated with poppy seeds. My Polish ancestors, being rather committed Catholics, would have made use of them for the Vigil Supper dishes.

I’ve been served egg noodles tossed with butter and poppy seeds, poppy seed cakes and treats, and spiced poppy seed paste filling. So well has poppy seed come to mean special that the onion poppy seed rolls at my first-ever professional cooking job in Southfield, MI still, to this very day, hold a high bar for excellence. I’ve tried many times over as many years, and while I’ve not ever twinned them, I’ve come very close.

Don’t Get High

Continue reading “Nevermind The Opiates: The Poppy Seeds Are Here”